World Sphere - 40 - Gift Exchange

Chapter 40: Gift Exchange

Callem confirmed that we could head to Hen’s Hollow for the festival the next morning. We would get to spend it with our families, which renewed everyone’s excitement after last night’s somber story. The end-of-year/start-of-new-year festival was a huge event. Leda decided to go home to spend it with her family in the capital, and Cilia was going with her. They planned to use the transports in Hen’s Hollow, as Sebastian was not coming to retrieve them.

The festival lasted five days across Skyholme. The first day was a family event called the Day of Remembrance. This day honored those who had passed during the year and those who had passed before. Usually, people spent time telling stories about those people who had passed. In the evening, people exchanged gifts with friends and loved ones, like Christmas. It was a substitute for not celebrating birthdays.

The second day of the festival was the Day of Celebration of the past year’s events, and the town commons in Hen’s Hollow got extremely lively. It was a big social event with dances, food, alcohol, games, and plays.

The third day celebrated the coming year and was a continuation of the previous day’s partying. There were usually large groups singing together in the streets, and lots of drinking happened on the festival’s third day. Usually, some type of illusionary fireworks display happens in the darkest part of the evening. Well, our little town usually hired a lesser mage for illusionary fireworks every year.

In the cities, there were actual fireworks to accompany large illusions in the sky. The fourth day of the festival included a morning meal, which was supposed to be spent with loved ones or someone you were courting. That was the last event of the festival. The rest of the fourth day was ‘clean up,’ and the fifth day was the day of recovery from partying so hard to get ready to return to work.

I was looking forward to the festival, seeing Freya and my family. The training today progressed slowly as we all anticipated Wynna’s return. We were not disappointed as a modest-sized transport skyship landed on the practice yard. It was not a beautiful ship like the Wind Splitter. It was a clunky, boxy thing but functional. It didn’t glide and move gracefully and was constantly making adjustments to its approach. There was an open upper deck, and Wynna and Ennet were on it, waving to us as it landed.

After the ship landed Wynna hugged and kissed Callem and then directed the unloading of the ship. Lots of furniture and crates came out of the hold. The shelves Wynna got me were beautiful. She said they had a hard white maple from a dungeon. They were molded by spell magic and had an organic look to them with some elegant curves.

There were three shelves, and they were all the same size. The wood was white with thin black growth lines, I thought zebra wood would have been a better description. The size was off, though. The shelves were all nine feet long, there were six shelves on each unit, and the depth of them was about 22 inches, the top shelf was just over seven feet in height. So, unfortunately, they would not all fit if one went on each of the three sides…unless I expanded the space.

A beautiful desk made of the same wood came off the transport next, and it was large, three by six feet and it was an office-style desk with drawers and everything. Not something I requested. Then a chair came; it was a swivel rocker made of the same wood and padded with dark brown leather. Wynna came to stand next to me. “Sorry, Storme, I couldn’t break up the set. There is a large bed, armoire, two burrows, and two blanket chests too. It was made for a young Bricio’s apartment but he couldn't pay the furniture maker.” I watched as the men from the ship unloaded everything and brought it to the basement.

“Thank you, Wynna. The wood and craftsmanship are beyond reproach. It is perfect,” I said. It wasn’t a lie. I went to the basement while everyone else was upstairs picking through their haul from Wynna. She had packed everyone’s requests in individual crates with their name on them. Well, I could jam all this furniture into my space. The bed, at least, was just the frame. The wood was extremely dense as it was incredibly heavy. I would need help getting everything into my space. Fortunately, Callem came down the stairs anticipating his aid.

“We have forty or so minutes before we need to head back up. Let’s get everything into your storage space.” With that, I opened the space with a full 10’ x 10’ door. Callem nodded, impressed and then helped me cram everything inside. We lined up the three shelves to the right. I really only needed access to one shelf currently. We packed and stacked everything else, starting at the back of the space.

The desk and chair were the last items put inside. When we finished, I had just enough room to access one shelf and utilize the desk and chair. I still needed the casks of water and wine, but I could wait to bring them in. I closed the portal and smiled. Even though the space was a mess, it was more like a hoarder’s storage closet, and I had made progress in my plans for the spell.

I went upstairs with Callem and found the skyship gone. It was headed to Hen’s Hollow to unload the rest of the cargo to Ennet’s house. There were stacks of things still in the practice yard. Callem clapped his hands and started directing us. We were going to be getting a workout out of this. Gareth got the job of bringing my casks to the basement, and I had to slide crates inside the house with Cilia. One crate was labeled with my name. I checked quickly, and it was the gifts I had gotten everyone.

It took everyone a few hours to get everything where Wynna wanted it. The guest room was now packed with furniture and crates. Wynna tried to convince Callem to expand the house to include two more bedrooms for all her things, which was our queue to leave. There was a lot of excitement in the bunkhouse as each of us had a crate with our names on it. I wondered what everyone had gotten me. I was looking forward to finding out tomorrow after dinner.

We ended up getting a short break before weapons training. Callem had us back on axes and throwing daggers today. We were supposed to wear them while in town during the festival for protection. After dinner, Wynna canceled the discussion so she could unpack. This gave me time to study the alarm spell. I also went to the basement and loaded my casks into my storage space on the shelves. I put down some old clothes to protect the shelves, worried I might damage the beautiful wood, but it was probably not necessary. The space looked like the beginnings of a hoarder’s closet.

Back in my loft, I reread some of the notes in the spell book for dimensional closet. One particular note near the end of the book I read a few times pondering. It said a dimensional closet cast before an aether core fully matured would expand in conjunction with the core.

I had not thought too much of the note as it said the space would only expand around 6% in volume if cast early after a core was awakened within a year. This was not a huge increase, but there was no mention if an aether core ability could affect that percentage. Would my tier 4 greater aether core affect the space?

Recasting the spell over and over to increase the level might be a bad thing as it would be resetting the space. I could now think of it as a seed in my aether space that could grow. With a tier 4 enhanced core, would the percentage be a 24% volume increase? Or if it held that each tier was three times as powerful as the last, could the multiple be 81 times? That would mean a possible expansion of the space by 486%!

The spellbook note mentioned it was a volume expansion, not linear. So that would be 1,000 cubic feet to start…going to, at most 4,860 cubic feet. I got out a pencil and paper and did some math…that would make the new space about a 16.5-foot box. Well, I really hoped that would be the case. I could check on the shelves and see if they got further from the walls as my core matured to confirm my hypothesis.

I didn’t study too much before going to sleep. Everyone else was going through their crates in secret. I did think that I should be able to imprint the alarm spell shortly after the festival.

Breakfast in the morning was still lively, with everyone teasing everyone about what they might have gotten them. The big reveal would be tomorrow night. The day after, we would be heading to Hen’s Hollow. The banter continued through stretching. I was quiet and anticipating practicing with my dimensional space.

I prepared a simple marinade for chicken thighs, breasts, and wings. Tonight, I would grill them and cook some long-grain rice with diced vegetables to accompany them. The preparation took about 30 minutes, giving me about 90 minutes to experiment in the basement. While Wynna was getting lunch ready, I started her on some chocolate eclairs for dessert. She was a good baker but still not a great cook, but she was making some progress.

In the basement, I opened the space and looked closely at the wall and shelf…about one finger width separated them…but was the shelf flush to the wall last night when we brought it in on this side of the space? I muscled the shelf against the wall after taking the casks off it. I double-checked, and it was flush now. I replaced the casks and closed the doorway. Ok, I thought it was time to practice the exchange ability for the spell.

I started with my dragon bone dice. They were lucky, and I got some insights from them. When I had an item appear, it was oriented as it was in the space. I learned this by studying the pips on the dice as I pulled them from my space a few times. This meant I would need to ensure any weapons would have their hilts oriented toward me when I stored them in the space.

Putting objects in the space was easier than I thought. I had a quick flash in my mind of the space and could place the object anywhere inside where it would fit. Apparently, gravity didn’t take hold until the doorway was opened. I realized that I didn’t need Callem’s help yesterday to get everything inside as I could have used this aspect of the spell to do so.

Next, I tried removing one of the shelves from the space and found I needed to have an area available for the shelf to appear that had only air. Due to its volume, as the shelf made a small pop sound when it appeared. It also drew some aether from my core, which surprised me as the evolution did not say the ability required aether to use. Apparently, the dice drew so little aether I hadn’t noticed.

The mass of the object exchanged with space influenced how much aether was required. To measure the aether, I began moving the shelf back and forth. My best estimate was that it took 17 exchanges of the shelf to consume one estimated unit of aether. The shelf unit weighed approximately 300 pounds, by my estimate. Therefore, one aether could move 5,000 lbs. I then spent time rearranging the space using the exchange ability. I felt for the leveling progress of the spell, and yes, it had progressed maybe a fifth of the way toward level four. This was fantastic! I could level the spell by using the exchange ability and wouldn’t need to recast it!

I went upstairs and checked on Wynna. I helped her finish the eclairs. As I was filling the eclairs, I wondered if I could fill the dimensional space directly with the metal I created. Essentially making the metal within my dimensional space. It took a lot of focus on my part, but I succeeded! I could now empty my aether core at night by making coins directly into my dimensional closet!

As was typical, my mind was churning over other thoughts during the day’s training. I found myself isolating myself from everyone and focusing on making gold coins on the shelves in my space one at a time. As the day progressed, I found I had mastered the skill and could make the coins as easily into the space as outside it.

At dinner, I grilled the chicken and cooked the rice and vegetables. It wasn’t my best effort, but everyone enjoyed it and the eclairs even more. I think the eclairs were Leda’s new favorite food, and she had cream and chocolate icing on her lips and cheeks. I got some free time while everyone washed dishes. I checked my crate to make sure all my gifts were there. Each was wrapped in a white cloth. I rearranged everything inside the crate for ease of access for tomorrow night.

Callem led tonight’s discussion. The 90-minute session revolved around recognizing people who may be watching you. It was actually pretty interesting, and we all asked questions as the session progressed. After the session, I immediately used my cleanliness spell and climbed into my loft. I was studying the alarm spell when Aelyn climbed into her bed.

“I don’t think I want to go into the town for the festivities,” she said. She obviously either wanted to ask me to ask ‘why’ or just wanted some attention.

After a few minutes of thinking about it, I asked, “Aelyn, are you worried about the brand?” She didn’t respond immediately.

I returned to studying, and then she interrupted me again, “Yes. It just doesn’t feel right. And I only know you and Gareth. It would be awkward for me to be celebrating.”

Ok, I think she wanted me to push her one way or the other. I didn’t wait long before saying, “I am sorry to hear that. Either Gareth’s family or mine would welcome you if you came. I am sure Pascal and Freya told our parents about you. If you reconsider, just let me know.” I waited for a while before returning to studying. She didn’t say anything else before I went to sleep.

The next day, Callem was particularly strict with us. Stretching involved constant corrections under his watchful gaze. I was very close to achieving a full split, but Callem pushed me beyond my comfort zone today by pressing firmly down on my shoulder. I wasn’t the only one affected. Callem then remarked that everyone’s focus was drifting, and when that occurred, you would be unprepared to respond in battle. So today, whenever anyone lost focus, everyone would face the consequences. As the day progressed, Callem found people who were wandering in their focus and punished us as a group. At least he didn’t pick on me and Leda exclusively. It was a painful day all around.

After dinner, we had an hour before the gift exchange. The exchange would take place in the Callem’s farmhouse, so we gathered our gifts and went to the couches at the appointed time. I was a little excited, and Callem started. He had a book for everyone, Gareth’s was about dungeons, of course, Surviving Your First Delve. My book was about weapon runic inscriptions, Bran’s Guide to Selecting and Inscribing Basic Weapon Runes. It was extremely thick, and I was paging through it, so I missed what the other books were handed out.

Wynna was next to give out gifts. She gave each of us an enchanted light stone. The stones were similar to the one I had recently purchased but had a wider range of brightness and a longer life after recharging. They were made with tier five aether dust, according to the note in the wooden boxes they came in. Leda whispered that they were extremely expensive. We were all playing with the stones when Callem asked who was next, and Leda jumped in.

Leda gave Gareth another book on dungeons. It was a guidebook to the two local dungeons near Aegis City on Titan’s Shield. Leda gave Aelyn an enchanted bracelet, but I didn’t catch what it did as she whispered it to Aelyn. She handed Cilia a pair of boots that excited her, and I assumed were also enchanted besides being ‘stylish.’ The benefits of having a family in the business of enchanting, I guessed.

My gift was a massive tome, another book. The title of the book was volumes I, II, and III on the basics of runic enchanting bound into a single book. Leda explained that the tome included all the basics for connecting basic primer runes in enchanting. She also said I could keep her books on the primers I had borrowed. I was ecstatic about her gift. If I ever had time to practice enchanting, I would at least have the references I needed to experiment.

Cilia was next, and she had stylish outfits for everyone. Her uncle was apparently a famous tailor in the capital. I pretended excitement but knew I would probably grow out of the outfit quickly. I was in the middle of a growth spurt. Well, I could wear it to the festival at least. Callem brought out some of the red juice, the remaining eclairs, and some cookies. With three of us left, Gareth went next.

Gareth got each of the girls leather armor, just the upper body. As they brought out the armor, I thought they fit the girl’s curves a little too well. The leather cuirasses were made by Master Aldrich, so they were high quality, but I still wondered how Gareth relayed the girl’s dimensions so accurately; maybe Wynna had helped?

Callem was next, and Gareth got him a large case of spicy spices. Every hot spice you could imagine. Callem was super pleased with the gift. Gareth’s gift for Wynna was a heavy blanket throw. It was made by a popular quilter in the Hen’s Hollow. I was up next and excited to see what had my best friend gotten me?

Two pairs of underwear and socks. I acted excited, and Gareth said they were the same underwear he had been bragging about for months. When I asked him if these were the ones he had worn, he flushed red and insisted they were not. He had another gift for me: a very nice dark green cloak. I believe it matched the one he had worn when it was raining. Essentially Gareth had used my coin to buy my gifts on his trip. I appreciated the green cloak; it was a fine gift.

It was my turn next. Before I could present my gifts. Callem presented everyone with the axes and a set of throwing daggers I had made. The throwing daggers were the size and weight that each person preferred during practice. He then brought out the weapons I had made for everyone. Everyone knew these gifts were coming, but they still were super excited. Cilia and Leda were not aware I had made them, and thought Callem procured them. Callem reminded everyone not to flash these weapons around as the quality was exceptional, and it may attract unwanted attention.

After the excitement died down, I got to give out my gifts. Yes, everyone was getting more from me. I started with Ennet and Wynna’s wine, six bottles. She smiled and thanked me as she had selected the vintages herself. Next up were the potion belts with the potions. I read the labels in passing them out, and Wynna had gotten the intermediate brews inside of the minor ones. I didn’t think Callem would ever wear the belt, but I planned to make him some blades early in the new year, so this would do for now. Gareth was probably the happiest of all, professing it was exactly what a delver needed. He excitement elevated when he noticed the vials were the hardened runic vials that adventurers used.

The next gift I produced was for Leda. It was the spell book for Arcane Missile, and she was thrilled. The last gift I had was for Aelyn, and it was another spell book. She was extremely happy and hugged me since she sat next to me. This prompted Leda to get up and do the same. Gareth then jumped up and hugged me as well, laughing the entire time, but Aelyn and Leda had retreated away from me so he couldn’t dog pile me and them together, which is what I suspected was his goal. The gift exchange was a big success, and everyone was happy as we headed off to bed.

I went to the cellar and put all my gifts into my space. Tomorrow, I will get to see my family and hopefully have a few days off from the rigors of training. I planned to mentally relax and enjoy myself. No spells, stretching, obstacle courses, sword training, or enchanting.